Minor Passions Characters - JT Cornell

JT Cornell

Michael Sabatino (May 18 - July 18, 2006; October 5 - December 28, 2006)

Joseph Talbot "JT" Cornell (born on or between June 7, 1959 and June 6, 1960- died December 2006) was the editor of a tabloid known as Daily Private Lives; in 2001, he published the shocking revelation that Crane heir Ethan Crane had been fathered, not by Julian Crane, but by Police Chief Sam Bennett, a fact kept secret by his mother, Ivy Crane. Sometime after, JT was forced to flee the United States when the IRS discovered that he had been evading taxes for many years.

In May 2006, JT was hiding in Rome when he was tracked down by Theresa Crane, who wanted JT to tell Ethan that his wife and mother-in-law, Gwen Winthrop and Rebecca Crane, had been the ones to send JT the information about Ethan's paternity and not Theresa herself. JT only admitted the truth to Ethan after Theresa promised him $10 million; Ethan refused to believe JT, however, claiming that JT had only said what he had for the money.

JT was later roped into Alistair Crane's omega plot, but ended up stealing the chalice and fleeing. Chad Harris caught JT, however, and, in exchange for his freedom, JT gave Chad his birth certificate, which he had found in Alistair's office in the catacombs — Chad's birth certificate showed that his parents were Alistair and Liz Sanbourne and not Julian Crane and Eve Russell as he had previously been told. JT further explained that Eve's half-sister, Liz, had been adopted, meaning that Chad and Whitney's three-year relationship had not been incestuous.

Despite escaping Chad, Theresa eventually caught up with JT. Hoping to catch Theresa off-guard, he revealed to her that, according to his research, Ethan, and not Julian, had fathered Theresa's ten-year-old son, Little Ethan. Theresa was floored, and JT was able again to escape. With money provided by Gwen Winthrop, JT fled Italy.

JT arrived in Harmony in October 2006, hoping to extort many of its residents for money in exchange for not revealing their secrets. Along with the fact that Gwen and Rebecca had outed Ethan as a Bennett and that Theresa was hiding Little Ethan's paternity from Ethan, JT also knew that Pilar Lopez-Fitzgerald had been involved in the massacre of the Vasquez family in Mexico numerous years earlier and that Chad was having an affair with JT's colleague, Vincent Clarkson; JT also apparently knew certain secrets about Vincent, perhaps that he was really Julian and Eve's son or that he was planning to begin a reign of terror in Harmony at Alistair's behest.

JT demanded that Gwen and Theresa each bring him money; whomever brought him more would get to decide whether or not he told Ethan the truth about how he received the information of his paternity. Theresa brought JT a scant $100 more than Gwen, and it appeared that Theresa would be the victor; Julian Crane, however, convinced JT to side with Gwen with the hope that he could leverage Theresa's desire to be with Ethan as a means to gain more custody of Little Ethan, whom he believed to be his son.

JT soon realized that someone was out to get him; he began dressing in drag to disguise himself and placed all of his secrets on a USB stick, sending it to the Daily Private Lives headquarters. On December 26, 2006, Vincent, dressed in a Santa suit, murdered JT and placed his body inside of Chad and Whitney's wedding cake. JT's USB stick never made it to the office, however; Rebecca and Gwen eventually found it hidden in Theresa's office at Crane Industries.